Talavera Colorado

The Outside the Box Project was initiated in 2016 and utilizes art to combat graffiti. Traffic Boxes made up 70 percent of graffiti incidents. The cost of redesigning a traffic box is far less than the amount utilized to remove graffiti multiple times throughout the years. These public art projects not only help save city funds, but they also help build a sense of community ownership and support artists, many of whom are local residents.
Close to half of this project was funded by an SCFD grant awarded to the Thornton Arts, Sciences and Humanities Council (TASHCO). The TASHCO Funds Balance paid for the remaining amount.
About this design: Ortega explains, "This design uses imagery symbolic to Colorado with a modern talavera take. The design features a bighorn sheep, a columbine flower, the Denver Art Museum, a lark bunting, Mesa Verde, and of course mountains. Talavera was used for the coloring to showcase the imagery as an homage to the rich Mexican culture that is ingrained into our state. The images were hand drawn and then colorized digitally. This image was also stitched together for colorization in Photoshop."